Wreckage from airplane crash removed

Stephen Vibbard, left, and an officer with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office look Saturday afternoon at the wreckage of an airplane that crashed Friday.

Anderson Independent Mail

The engine of a Cirrus SR22 airplane is placed on a trailer bed before being taken to an Atlanta-area building for closer examination.

Anderson Independent Mail

ANDERSON - The burned wreckage of a single-engine plane that crashed at the Anderson County Regional Airport Friday was hauled off Saturday on the back of a trailer.

Pilot William "Bill" T. Hayden, the only person on the plane, died in the wreck after the second of what were to have been three touch-and-go drills, officials said.

Bill Settle, an experienced trainer, had been on board until shortly before the wreck when he got out to watch his lifelong friend attempt the three maneuvers. Settle is an expert trainer specializing in Cirrus planes, including the popular four-seat SR22 prop airplane that crashed.

Settle told officials that Hayden had left the runway and climbed steeply before his engine stalled and the plane rolled to the ground, Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said.

Both Settle and Hayden are from Cincinnati and were at Hayden's other home near Hendersonville, N.C., before arriving at the Anderson airport late Friday morning.

National Traffic Safety Board investigator Dennis Diaz is one of several officials, including the Federal Aviation Administration, looking into the crash.

Diaz and others collected perishable evidence — photos, measurements and observations of the wreckage — before a crew of airplane recovery experts from Atlanta arrived Saturday around 5 p.m. to remove it.

The plane parts will be taken to an Atlanta-area building for careful examination.

Diaz said his preliminary results about the cause of the crash will be available at his agency's website in about 10 days.

Details about the cause would not be available until then, he said.

Following the preliminary investigation will be an intermediate statement on probable cause expected in about two months.

Officials will release a final report between six months and a year from now, said Nicholas Orrell, a spokesman for the safety board.

A recoverable data module, similar to the "black boxes" required for larger aircraft, was located and appeared to be in good condition, Diaz said. It will be sent to a Washington, D.C., lab for data recovery.

Diaz said he would not yet discuss much of what witnesses had reported but was able to confirm that several people had heard a pop or a bang coming from a fire-extinguisher-sized charge that shoots off a parachute attached to the plane. The noise was heard after Settle and two others had attempted to rescue Hayden but were forced back by the fire.

The heat of the fire may have set off the charge.

The parachute was still on board the plane but the cartridge had been ejected, possibly into the distant treeline, and had not been located. Parachutes only work at certain altitudes, Diaz said.

The parachute's ability to have been deployed, he said, is only one of dozens of variables officials will consider, including weather, maintenance records, training logs, parts, design and production.

A special tractor was used to get down into the valley where the plane crashed.

The engine, wings and other rubble were loaded onto a semi-truck's trailer and hauled away.

The Friday wreck was the first serious accident at the airport since the 1970s, airport officials said.